


Tales of a Cat and a Bat

by TriplePivotTurn



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Batman!Hiccup, Boogeyman!Pitch, Catboy!Jack, DC!Hijack AU, DCverse - Freeform, Harley!Astrid, Ivy!Merida, M/M, Mentions of Death, Nothing especially triggering, Some Romance, Toothless is a car, dc, some violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 21:07:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2787806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriplePivotTurn/pseuds/TriplePivotTurn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Collection of stories about the brave vigilante Batman (Hiccup) and the mischievous Catboy(Jack) and their interactions. Each chapter is episodic though there is a bit of an overarching narrative. </p>
<p>Story inspired by some seriously awesome fanart. Posted here after some requests from Tumblr. Eventual Hijack (currently you have to squint a bit though).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Cat and a Bat

“Well, if it isn’t the genius little Batboy, come to spoil my fun?” Catboy crooned from his perch on the edge of the building. He sat crouched overlooking the city and not at the figure approaching behind him, but he didn’t need to look to know who it was.

“You know,” The other figure said casually, “ I saw you up here and thought, there’s Catboy, I’m sure he’s being an upstanding citizen and not planning to swipe anything from the jewellery store across the road, but just to be sure, I’ll ask. So, what are you doing up here Cat?”

Catboy chuckled, rolling his shoulders and peering sideways over to the lightly armoured individual now standing beside him. “Me?” He said with false innocence. “I’m just doing what any good kitty does at night.”

“And what would that be? Touching things that don’t belong to you? Scratching up the furniture?” The other joked.

“No.” Catboy returned coyly, adjusting his position on the ledge. “Hunting rodents.”

The Bat gave a shocked cry as suddenly Catboy was on him, icy breath cascading over the exposed part of his face. Even as he began to struggle he knew it was too late. Ice encased his wrists and regardless of the heating elements he had installed, it would be a while before ice that thick melted enough for him to break it.

He arched his back trying to bring his feet between him and the man above him, but Catboy was having none of it; sticking close to his body as the agile figure struggled to supress his leg movements. He gave a frustrated cry as his knees became trapped in ice effectively halting most of his movement.

He should’ve been more prepared for the Cats tricks.

“Well you caught me.” He grunted. “Now what do you want?”

Catboy seemed to ignore him, resting on his haunches, one finger resting on his lower lip thoughtfully for a moment before he spread his lips into a wicked grin. “Or would it be more accurate to say that I’m not hunting rodents, but _fishing_ for _haddock_.”

His heart stopped. He stopped breathing. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third became completely motionless beneath one of the more prominent nuisances to local law enforcement. His mouth went dry and mind blank as fingers slipped beneath his mask and gently pried it away.

“Little Hiccup Haddock, the embarrassment of our honourable arms manufacturing magnate. The poor sweet thing. Locked away in his family’s mansion, so small and such a frail boy. Does your daddy know that you run around the rooftops playing vigilante?” He purred, leaning close to brush his cheek along the side of Hiccup’s exposed face. “Such a handsome face to hide beneath a mask. I wonder if the girls would like to pay him a visit, or perhaps that’s not the kind of tail you wanna chase.”

Hiccup fought a blush. He should be used to Catboy’s innuendo, but his proximity wasn’t helping. He huffed angrily at his own reaction.

Time to turn the tides.

“Your secret’s not so safe either Jackson Overland.” The body above him froze and Hiccup smirked. “Or should I call you what that monster on the moon named you? Jack Frost.”

There were claws at his neck and he could feel Jack’s angry rumble as he spoke. “That man has no sway over me anymore.”

Never one to keep his mouth shut Hiccup continued. “Did I touch a nerve Jack? You know you don’t have to do this right? If you’re not his lackey anymore you can stop your criminal escapades, go back to the straight and narrow.”

Jack laughed, claws moving back away from pinned superhero’s throat. “If you know so much about me, you know I can’t. Not being under his thumb just means I can align myself to whoever I want whenever is most profitable to me.”

“I’d pay.” Hiccup countered keeping the conversation moving.

“Excuse me?”

“Let me up, keep my secret and I’ll pay you for each day you don’t commit a crime.”

Jack sat back on his haunches, lifting his goggles to stare at Hiccup with intensely blue eyes.

“You’ll pay me to not do anything?” He said.

“Yes.”

“What is _wrong_ with you?” Jack frowned, eyes narrowed.

Hiccup sighed, lightly testing the ice around his wrists, it was nearly weak enough. “I’ve got enough on you to put you away for a long time. That botched jewellery heist last week is only the smallest of your problems. The only reason I haven’t yet is that if I put you away your sister goes into the foster system. Doesn’t she?”

Jack stiffened, the full weight of what this masked idiot knew settling on him like layer upon layer of silt at the bottom of a lake. He was screwed. If Hiccup reported him _she_ would be in danger, people he’d slighted as the Cat would come for her and Jack would be locked away, unable to help her.

This was so clichéd. He couldn’t believe that this stupid vigilante had him over a barrel.

“Using an orphan against her big brother is kinda low for a hero don’t you think?” Jack griped.

Hiccup grinned. “You should know me better than that.”

“ _You_ should know I can’t do the straight and narrow, cats don’t move that way.”

Hiccup tested the bonds again, feeling the thinness of the ice. _Finally_. He wrenched his limbs upward and quickly overpowered Jack, turning the tables and pinning him. Jack writhed, struggling to get free but ultimately knew he’d been trapped, he should’ve paid more attention to his ice.

“A cat on the streets is bound for the pound.” Hiccup grunted, trying to keep hold of the squirming man. Jack flashed a mischievous grin and Hiccup felt his gut lurch in response.

“Bound for the pound, huh?” Jack purred, changing tactic and grinding his hips upward. “I didn’t know you flew that way batboy.”

Hiccup’s face was instantly red, throat closing around an undignified sound as Jack continued to grind against him suggestively. Blue eyes gazed up at him beneath bedroom mast eyelids, a cat got the cream smirk on his lips.

“Stop that.” Hiccup frowned, fighting valiantly to remove the flush from his face.

Jack grinned wider.

“Oooh, so I _am_ the kind of tail you’re after.” He stated smugly, leaning up as far as he could with his arms pinned, breath fanning over Hiccups face. “I wasn’t lying before when I called you handsome either. You give me a kiss and I’m sure I’ll forget that I know that identity of yours.”

Hiccup nose was filled with the smell of catmint and pine, crisp as the first winter freeze. He could hear the creak of leather and the rustling of fabric as Jack moved beneath him and the thought alone made his skin itch. The sensation of that cool breath on his face gave him goose bumps all over and the promise in that blue gaze made his throat dry.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about Catboy in that way. I mean, the way his hips moved when he walked, that smile, and oh the flexibility of that lithe body.

_‘Not helpful thoughts Haddock_.’ He berated himself.

“I know you’re trying to distract me.” Hiccup said as evenly as he could.

Jack grinned. “Is it working?”

“Somewhat. Stop it. This is serious. I can’t let you keep up your crime without putting you away for it.” Hiccup explained, steeling his resolve against temptation.

Jack huffed. “Always spoiling my fun. I’m no housecat Haddock and I need the money.” He argued, relenting on his previous tactic and flopping back onto the rooftop. “Do you know how expensive it is to send a girl to school, put a roof over her head, and keep the neighbours from yapping? It’s not cheap.”

 “You need to decide what you’re going to do from here on out.” Hiccup replied sternly, pressing down on Jack’s wrists to reinforce his words and keep Jack’s attention. “You can’t keep doing this, I _will_ report you, and I’ve got more than enough evidence on _all_ your identities to put you in gaol for a long time.”

“Look bat brains.” Jack snapped. There was only so long he could be pinned down and berated before he lost his temper. “I’m not going to be told what to do by anyone anymore. Nothing is free. You say stop committing crime and you’ll pay me? What happens when you stop? What happens to _her_ when you think everything is great and you stop paying attention? What happens to her when the scum on these streets think they can mess with what’s mine? When they think I’m given up and soft? What happens when they know what you know about me?”

Jack growled and wrenched a hand free swiftly bringing it up to wrap icy digits around Hiccup’s throat. Hiccup brought his hand up to try and pin Jack again but instantly stilled as he felt a creeping cold on his skin.

“All I gotta do is put some ice in your wind pipe and this bat can’t screech to anyone about my crimes _or_ my sister. They’ll have a hard time figuring out how you suffocated up here with nothing in your throat. I was happy with fun and games but if someone has to lose an eye it _won’t_ be me on the losing side.” Jack snarled, eyes hard as glaciers.

Hiccup let go of Jack’s other wrist, raising his hands up defensively.

“You don’t have to lose anything.” Hiccup said softly, as his brain scurried to find a solution to appease Jack before he lost his life to a dumb mistake. He remembered all too well the tales of Jack Frost when he was first made, before he went underground and re-emerged as Catboy. Jack would make good on his threat.

Not only that, Jack was right.

He was trapped where he was. Once you were in this life getting out was hard. Nowhere would be safe for his sister when word got out about her, and as soon as it looked like Catboy was someone you could mess with the sharks would start circling. He needed to offer Jack something for his sister, to keep her safe; but he’d need a fortress, somewhere impenetrable, with cameras and full 24 hour security, and the only place really that had all that was….

“Stay with me.” He breathed, the idea only half formed but the words already leaving his mouth. “You and your sister could live in my house, plenty of protection, no one would need to know. Y-You could help me! Keep me informed of what’s happening, maybe mess with some mobs for fun like you do now, just no robberies and it’s fine right? You’d earn your way, your sister would be safe, and all the staff have airtight NDAs, no problems.”

Jack didn’t relent his grip but the cold receded marginally. His eyes searched Hiccups face before his mouth popped open in surprise. “Oh god. You’re serious.”

“Yes.” Hiccup said, staring too seriously at Jack, face noble and handsome. Jack’s heart thundered and his mind supplied a very intelligent ‘ _oh_ ’ in response to Hiccup’s earnest expression.

In that moment, Jack decided he was done with this conversation. He slicked the ground beneath Hiccup’s knees and with a yelp the unmasked hero lurched forward. Using the momentum of Hiccups forward fall and the prime location of his hand, he pitched the heavier man off him and quickly got to his feet, darting to the other edge of the building while Hiccup coughed from the force to his windpipe.

“Jack.” He wheezed, struggling back to his feet, black boots much better equipped to deal with the slick ice than his knees were.

Jack paused at the edge of the building, lower his goggles back over his eyes. “I’ll think about it bat.” He replied before twisting and diving off the edge of the building.

Finally regaining his breath, Hiccup lurched over to his black mask, slipping it back comfortably over his face grateful for the return to anonymity. He looked out over the edge of the building but he knew it was pointless, Catboy was too fast and he could already hear the occasional whip crack in the distance, but he looked anyway.

He shook his head, sighing to himself. He promised to try and redeem the criminals of this city, but his dad probably wouldn’t be happy with his act of redemption being harbouring a criminal and his sister, even if he knew it or not.

With one last look in the direction the leather clad cat had disappeared in, Hiccup turned a leapt off the other side, spreading the wings of his cloak and gently gliding back down to his weaponised car, Toothless.

He should probably patrol for a few more hours, but the city could survive without him for the night, he had a feeling that his rival had probably gone back home as well. At least the streets were a tiny bit safer for one night.

Three weeks later and Hiccup was lying on his couch recovering from his latest bout with Harley. That girl packed a mean right hook, and her aim with an axe? He winced cradling the thick stripe of bruising that thankfully was only painful bruising and not painful death.

The day he upgraded that chest plate to withstand thrown axes was a good day.

“Hiccup!” Hiccup groaned, ignoring the hollering of the head butler, otherwise known as Fishlegs. He supposed Fishlegs did sound like he wanted Hiccup there urgently.

He got to his feet with a grunt, trying to walk as smoothly as he could to not irritate various bruises. He shuffled slowly into the foyer with a grimace, stopping just back from the front door where Fishlegs was standing to the side.

“What is it Fishlegs?” He sighed.

“Uh, there are some people at the door, they won’t leave until they’ve seen you?” Fishlegs explained, moving back from the door. Hiccup rolled his eyes, Fishlegs was a great butler, but he wasn’t forceful enough with all the randoms who came to the door.

“Look.” Hiccup said opening the door. “I’m sorry but my father’s not home please go an-and uh… Jack?”

“Hey Hiccup.” Jack said brightly, smiling widely as he stood in the doorway with a large backpack slunk over one shoulder. He stood dressed in a loose tee and jeans, absent of the claws, red goggles and leathers of his Catboy persona. Hiding shyly behind him was a young girl. Hiccup’s research told him that she was 11 years old, but she was tall for her age with wide brown eyes, which kept glancing between him, the huge doorway, and her brother.

Hiccup turned his eyes back to Jack who was staring at him as though daring him to renege on his offer. Hiccup smirked and pulled the door open wider to admit the two, turning back to Fishlegs who stood to the side, stunned.

“Fishlegs, please prepare rooms for our guests in the east wing, somewhere upstairs please.”

Fishlegs seemed a little shocked but quickly bustled away to do as asked. He turned back to face Jack who had sauntered into the foyer, his younger sister sticking close by his side looking around in awe. Jack grinned, slinking an arm around Hiccup’s shoulder.

“Just so you know, I drink a lot of milk.”


	2. Wounded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Hiccup thought was going to be a relaxing morning after a trying night turned out a little differently. It should be a well known fact that Cats and broken glass don't mix.

Sleeping with a known criminal/murderer/somewhat unhinged man down the hall way from you was not something Hiccup could recommend. For the first few mornings after coming back in from a night of patrol, he didn’t sleep. He locked the doors and windows, but didn’t sleep.

And nothing happened.

He heard Jack get his sister ready for school and leave to walk her to the bus stop. Aside from that there was nothing.

It was the _worst_.

It took at least a month before Hiccup had settled enough into the ‘no one is coming for me in my sleep’ mentality to actually rest. He still kept the door and widows locked, and the sensors in his room were all movement sensitive so if anything _did_ happen be would know; but nothing ever did.

Jack got his sister ready and then did who knows whatever else with the rest of the day. Occasionally he would catch Catboy slinking over the grounds back to his rooms early in the morning but aside from that, he hardly saw the other occupant to his oversized home. He caught glimpses of white hair raiding the fridge, or carrying his sister back down the hall to their rooms, but other than that, nothing.

Speaking of barely there occupants, he didn’t know what his dad thought of his guests or if he even knew they were there. He’d barely been home and when he was the Overland siblings were normally asleep or nowhere to be found. Conversation remained as awkward and stilted as it had ever been and each time he tried to bring the matter up, he lost his nerve. Heroic right? Red headed Poison Ivy can string him up upside down and he can’t keep his mouth shut, but his dad renders him an instant coward.

His first real run in with Jack didn’t come until a month and a half into their living arrangements, when he found him hanging off the edge of the couch watching cartoons upside down in the main lounge area. Jack had slowly ran his eyes over Hiccup who was still dressed in sweats after completing his daily drills. He had grinned lecherously at the freckled man, who had then immediately flustered and left, Jack’s laugh ringing out behind him.

The second encounter was only a few days later when he’d gone to the kitchen to grab a sandwich or something for lunch. Jack was once again lounging, though this time on the bench drinking milk from the bottle with a straw.

“Hey!” Hiccup frowned. “Don’t lie on the bench, people make food there!” He exclaimed, flicking his hands at Jack like he was shooing a cat from the bench, not an adult man, if Jack could be called that.

Jack just grumbled and slid elegantly off the end of the bench back on to his feet. He had slowly slid his legs of the edge and continued in that manner until his feet were planted on the floor and his back was ridiculously arched to leave his shoulders still resting on the bench. He had smirked at Hiccup then continued to completely straighten up, it was like he knew that he was admiring the absurd level of flexibility of that spine.

Jack had grinned a little more and continued to drink his milk in a confusingly sensuous manner, sauntering out of the kitchen.

Damn tease.

He was sure that Jack wasn’t as promiscuous as he led others to believe, it was just a ploy that got under people’s skin and distracted them. It worked on Hiccup. He was a man who spent all his time crime fighting and therefore had no time for a steady. Not that Jack was any candidate for a steady, and heck no would Hiccup ever get involved in a fling or something, he wasn’t that kind of guy.

He heard a quiet smothered snort of laughter from around the corner.

Stupid cat.

The third big encounter sans more run-ins in the lounge room and kitchen (each leaving Jack amused and Hiccup flustered and irritated), was early one morning as Hiccup made his way out from the cave for the night. He stretched his arms and shoulders as he walked down the hall, feeling the aches of another run in with that giant North. Ah well, at least he’ll be discouraged for a while, even if Hiccup hadn’t managed to catch him.  He had dreams of a bath in one of the main bathrooms, with the ridiculously sized tub, the bubbles, the steam, the water jets.

He nearly groaned thinking about it.

He’d just made it to the door when he caught the sound of hard breathing and running water. At first he flushed red, thinking about what could possibly be going on in there, and then he heard a sort of tinkling sound and a muffled sound of pain. That’s not good.

He knocked gently before opening and peering around the door.

Jack’s goggles were discarded in the middle of the floor, as were his gloves, and Hiccup sucked in a short breath when he finally caught sight of his partially villainous guest. Blood, lots of blood. There was a pool of pink water with small chips of red ice interspersed through it spreading slowly across the floor. Jack sat propped against the wall of the bathtub, hot water flowing out onto a pile of towels. Jack grimaced up at him as he pressed the warm towel to his side, there were small nicks all down the right side of his arm.

Hiccup could feel his jaw moving but no sound was coming out.

Jack was paler than usual and Hiccup could see a faint sheen of sweat beginning to beat along his forehead. That’s probably not good. Without a word to Jack he briskly walked to the medicine cabinet and pulled out a rather large first aid kit.

“What happened?” He asked, rummaging through the bag as he walked back to Jack, checking he had everything he would need.

Jack grimaced again. “Thrown through a skylight.” He ground out as Hiccup settled on his knees beside him, the pink water seeping into his pants. He glanced in the bathtub and spotted a few thick shards of glass sitting in the bottom.

“May I?” He asked, tentatively reaching for where Jack’s hands pressed the warm towel. Jack let his hands fall away from the towel as Hiccup gently lifted it away saying a quiet ‘oh’ to himself as the presence of the warm towel suddenly made sense. All of Jack’s right side was encased in a thinning layer of ice. The water and the other shards must’ve come from him covering the few deeper gashes in his arm.

“C-Can’t leave a trail of blood now can I?” Jack hissed out between laboured breaths.

Hiccup blinked for a moment at the quick thinking and was then immediately struck by the question of if he had had to do this before. Knowing how rough Catboy played, probably. He reached a hand out to Jack’s face, running the back of his knuckles over the other man’s forehead.

He frowned.

“What temperature are you normally?” Hiccup asked.

“Maybe I’m just all flustered you’re so close.” Jack joked pressing himself against the bathtub as he started to slide down to the ground, his leathers slick on the wet tiles.

“Well it’s not as if I’ve ever actually touched your bare skin before. You feel slightly warm to me, but I think that’s a bad sign for you.”

Jack huffed, hissing in pain as it irritated the wound.

“Sitting upright isn’t doing you any favours either. Lie down. I’ll get this ice off and check for glass.” Hiccup said, clearly not ready to accept no as an answer. Jack looked ready to refuse for a moment, he’d always taken care of himself anyway, but a fresh wave of pain and the accompanying dizziness advised him to take the order and lie down. Hiccup was surprisingly gentle as he helped arrange the injured man down onto his back, placing a towel partially beneath and beside Jack to catch some of the water from the ice.

Jack groaned at the coolness of the tile on his back, pressing the back of his neck to it as best he could while Hiccup quietly melted the ice, wetting the towel under the tap and wringing it out over the hidden wound.

“Who was it?” Hiccup asked as Jack groaned, throwing a hand over his face.

“Some new mob on the east. People smugglers.” He said from between clenched teeth. “They know better than to operate on my grounds.” He huffed a laugh. “Well, they definitely know now.”

Hiccup wasn’t sure he wanted to know what Catboy did to keep certain practices from his turf. He was still certainly a criminal who didn’t care about robberies or what not, but even criminals had crimes they didn’t like. Animal cruelty and people smuggling were things everyone knew Catboy didn’t tolerate, that and any of the Moon’s men being in his territory.

After ten minutes of gentle heat the ice had thinned enough that it was cracking and falling away with Jack’s breathing. Hiccup went to wipe the area to get it free of ice but thought better of it, lest he snag any glass with the towel.

He drew a deep breath, rummaging through the first aid kit for the tweezers, removing them from their sanitised bag and returning to peering at Jack’s wounds. There were a few shallow cuts that had only just pierced the leather, but there were three deep ones that probably still contained glass, the largest of the gash wrapped all the way around Jack’s waist but was fairly shallow.

He considered the tattered remnants of Jack’s leather jacket for a moment before deciding it was already wrecked and cutting the area away so he could get to the area easier. Jack and protested a little but mumbled something about making a new one anyway and stopped trying to push the scissors away.

Once the jack was away from the area he squeezed a bit more water over the wound, cold this time, to clear away some more of the blood and ice.

“You know.” Jack gasped out as Hiccup begun gently digging glass from his side, one hand resting beside the wound to steady him, the other removing the pieces of glass with the precision of a watch maker. “I never thought.” Another gasp. “That it’d turn out like this.”

“How do you mean?” Hiccup mumbled back, still intensely focused on clearing every bit of glass. His brow furrowed further in concentration as he spotted a particularly large one hidden in one of the smaller wounds, it was like an iceberg.

“Me, lying on your bathroom floor.” Jack grunted, giving in to a large groan of pain as Hiccup withdrew the glass with a sickening squelch. “Y-You, p-patching me up.” He continued as it tinkled into the tub.

Hiccup grinned just the smallest amount as he kept inspecting the wound. “Yeah, well. Things change.” He replied, digging in the bag again but this time for a large container of saline solution with a small nozzle at the end so he could flush the cuts and be sure.

“Okay, this might sting, try not to freeze it though.” Hiccup half joked, removing the nib from the end and resuming his hold on the tweezers with his other hand. Somewhere Jack noted Hiccup was left handed, and then he noted that whatever was in that bottle _hurt_. Hiccup lightly compressed the bottle sending the liquid running through the wound, he had his tweezers on hand for any missed glass but it seemed as though he had got it all. He checked Jack’s arms to much protesting and hissing, and then after a quick application of antiseptic (which had almost earnt him some frostbitten fingers), began bandaging him up.

He started with the arm and then moved to his torso, Jack propped up and resting his upper arm on Hiccup’s head to allow him access.

“You’re still pretty warm.” Hiccup muttered, reaching around Jack’s torso for the other end of the gauze. Jack only responded with a vague gurgling noise, exhausted from pain. “And some of those might actually need sutures, but we’ll see.” He continued to murmur, gently but firmly covering the wound.

“I don’t suppose you can stand?” Hiccup said after quickly shoving away the wet towels and settling Jack on a dry one.

“Just, leave me here. Cold floor s’nice.” Jack burbled, mind foggy. The sting of the antiseptic had completely burnt him out.

“Right.” Hiccup nodded. “Give me a second.”

Jack didn’t really pay attention to what happened next, he suspected he blacked out, but when he woke the next morning it was to afternoon sunlight streaming through the bathroom. There was a pillow beneath his head and a light sheet covering him. The air-conditioning must’ve been turned on because it was colder in the large bathroom than normal.

He groaned as he turned his head to further survey the room. The towels and blood were cleaned away, his jacket had been manoeuvred off taken away somewhere, and there in the corner was Hiccup.

The crime fighter was rugged up in thick quilts and propped up in the corner of the room. He’d been keeping an eye on Jack until he’d fallen asleep. Jack smiled a little, shaking his head, which given the blood loss was a bad idea. Big bad Batman coming to the rescue of injured cats, what was the world coming to. He sighed to himself, sparing one last glance to the enigma in the corner before succumbing to sleep again.

Two days after Jack had recovered Hiccup found a note taped to his door.

_Drug deal between Sandman and large interstate mob._ _  
_Tuesday, 1:00pm Behind Burts Best Pizzeria, near that jewellery theft you ruined._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just gonna keep on posting these all up seeing as I have so many chapters pre-written and you could just Tumblr them anyway.


	3. The Boogeyman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Run-in with the Nightmare King and an old buried foe.

Helping the local authorities had never really been Jack’s strong point. Even when he was plain old Jackson Overland he was mischievous and unhelpful in general. His sister had taken to telling him that he was a terror, but not a bad person, deep down he was good. Hanging around the Haddock mansion eyeing valuables, he wondered how far that good stretched.

Nevertheless here he was, a cat helping a rodent, without looking like he was trying to help said rodent. It was tough. He wasn’t even here because he particularly disliked Pitch Black. Although his name and reputation as the Nightmare King wasn’t unfounded, if the shivering heaps of human beings left in parks were anything to go by, the guy wasn’t actively irritating. Just another crime king pin.

Back to the case at hand though.

He snapped his whip up to the rafters, swinging across the benches of the small bank to clock a couple of cronies in the head, sweeping his leg in an arching kick. The bat had been driving them towards the corner dropping them with the sedative laced blades on his forearms. Considering how many times he’d been nicked by those, he was glad the sedative was a new addition.

Just as he’d almost finished trying to make it look like he wasn’t helping the bat, a new problem came up.

“Catboy?” A terribly smooth voice queried from a darkened corner.

Uh oh. He hadn’t expected… “Pitch! Didn’t know the boogeyman was still making house calls.”

He pivoted quickly on his heel, driving his knee down into the back of a henchman’s neck and spotting the long slim silhouette of the Nightmare King himself. This wasn’t good. Pitch was observant and calculating, not likely to fall for the simple ruse he had going currently.

Pitch considered him coldly. “And I’ve never known a cat to play with its food for so long.”

Catboy smirked, flipping lightly to the ground as the rest of Pitch’s cronies ignored him in favour of Batman. “Cats know better than to eat poisoned meat. I want to see if this prey runs out of poison before I take my turn. Sorry, but your nightmare men are collateral damage.”

Pitch grinned. “That is a relief. For a moment I was concerned. I’d hate to think you’d been _domesticated_ by a rodent, especially as it hasn’t been so many years since you ran away from your previous owner.”

Catboy’s jaw tightened and he levelled Pitch with a dark stare, the temperature of the room slowly cooling. If there was one thing he _hated_ it was being reminded of who he was before. Of what he was.

“I remember my previous _owner,_ “ He spat the word, “had me knocking down your doors _Pitch,_ so I wouldn’t hasten to remind me lest the sudden need to obey rises up again.” His voice was cold and level, reminiscent of Jack Frost’s cold fury; enough so that Pitch’s expression quickly went from triumphant to guarded.

Deciding to show a little of his old ice and help the Bat at the same time he sent a flick of it over to ensnare some of the nightmare men. “Still haven’t equipped them with anti-freeze?” He grinned. “What a mistake.”

Pitch grimaced. “I’ll make sure to steal some from the Rabbit. I’m sure he has the perfect mix.”

The lightness that Catboy had tried to force out didn’t stand well against the barb and anger began to rear its head.

“Unfortunately his last batch wasn’t very effective.” He snarled, cold creeping up his neck. “But hey, I’ve always wondered if you can freeze a shadow if you want to test that.”

“I’ll pass.” Pitch drawled.

“Of course. You’ve always been more partial to the whip.” Jack replied pulling his whip from his hip, trying to hold on to his Catboy persona but it was slipping. He may as well have been wearing concrete boots in a rising tide. He needed more time, needed the stupid Bat to finish with the henchmen. He couldn’t directly attack Pitch, the Bat had to do it. He’d frozen all those other Henchmen what was taking so long?

Pitch smirked. “You know my tastes so well, however you would also know that you’re too cold for them. I wonder if that’s what made your escape from the monster in the moon so easy, he’d simply grown tired of your frigidity. Does your new owner mind?”

Pure rage. “I’m not owned by anyone.” He snapped, calling his ice. The tide was rising.

“Maybe you just have a thing for tall, dark and handsome.” Pitch said casually, though his eyes betrayed the caution. He knew he was playing with fire. “I’ve noticed your lack of heists recently. Losing your touch or are you under the Bat’s thumb?”

“No one tells me what to do.” Jack snarled. “Should I remind you of what happened to my last handler and let that answer the question?”

From across the room here were a few more thuds and muffled curses before Batman had finally disposed of the last of Pitch’s nightmare men. He quickly turned ready for the next one when he caught Catboy and Pitch squaring off in the corner. Catboy’s posture was strong and rigid, lacking the fluidity and grace of his usual stance. Pitch was standing as powerfully as ever though there was caution in his eyes. The opportunity to sneak up on the Nightmare King was too good to pass up and slowly Hiccup began to make his way over.

Pitch rarely came out of the woodwork to oversee matters for himself, but there was something strange happening.

He couldn’t quite hear what Pitch said but Catboy’s posture grew even more rigid and somehow intimidating. Was it getting cold in here? His breath began to mist before his face as he drew closer to the pair.

“You still hiding away on the docklands? Tch tch, all that water nearby must make it awfully damp in there. Does it freeze in the winter I wonder? I could help.” Catboy said, voice hard as a glacier. Hiccup felt a chill move through him, he had known that Jack wasn’t entirely stable and Catboy’s persona kept a more frightening visage under control but it seemed Pitch knew how to draw out the monster.

Pitch shrugged. “So hostile. I’m not interested in voiding our arrangement but if are helping the Bat then our terms have changed. Prove it, if you’ve so much ice, stop playing with your food and finish it. You and I both know you don’t need to be close to kill.”

Pitch was trying to draw the monster out and then direct it at him! That’s probably why he’s here, he must’ve found out they were both fighting and figured he would try and manipulate Catboy into putting his problems on ice. Clever. Would have been much easier if currently Batman and Catboy didn’t have a truce.

There was no need to test it though.

Before Catboy could reply Batman was springing from behind to clip the back of his arm with the sedative infused blades. He quickly had to dodge as Catboy reacted blindly, mouth in a snarl as he bore the temperature down and coated his fingers in icy blades. In an unusual move, more ice raced across the rest of Catboy, covering his forearms and shoulders in spiny blades of ice.

Hiccup dodged a left swipe but misread the extra length of the claw and was caught along his cheek, the cut searing cold. He ducked further back, blocking a strike only to find the outside of his arm quickly coated in ice. This wasn’t good, this wasn’t Catboy’s style of fighting, there was too much ice.

He continued weaving out of the way of the blows, driven further and further away from Pitch, whose plan had apparently worked perfectly. As he began to run out of room, Jack’s swipes (because this was no longer Catboy but someone else) became sluggish and heavy, the sedative slowly working its way through his icy blood. It was only a dodged swipe or two later that he fell to the ground, splaying ice from his fingertips as he landed.

Hiccup quickly turned his attention back to Pitch who grinned wickedly as Hiccup charged across the room.

“What a shame.” He sighed before vanishing around the corner. Hiccup gave chase but it was useless, trying to find Pitch once you’ve lost sight of him was impossible. With a sigh he returned to the warehouse. Catboy was lying face down in a steadily receding patch of ice, though the ice on his body hadn’t melted away yet. Hiccup crouched by the prone figure and shook his head.

“Well now I’m in a mess.” He groaned, hearing the oncoming police sirens. It was one thing to not turn him in, another to prevent him being arrested. Catboy had stuck to his word since coming to live in the manor. Also the information was useful and in a pinch he could almost count on him, after all he had been fighting _with_ him in a manner of speaking…

The sirens grew louder.

He breathed hard out his nose in a huff. Jack _had_ stopped Pitch’s interference in the fight, frozen some henchmen for him, and hadn’t attacked until Hiccup had attacked him first.

“I don’t trust the police to keep a hold of you, so I guess I’ll take you in myself.” He said loudly before hoisting the limp figure on to his shoulder. He quickly made his way out of the warehouse back to his vehicle.

“Toothless, both doors.” He said on approach, the sleek black vehicle popping open the doors. He dropped Catboy into the passenger seat, trying to not appear too gentle in case Pitch was watching from somewhere.

“Toothless, lock passenger.” He said closing the passenger side door and making his way around to his driver side door. “Better turn the heating up.” He murmured settling in to the driver’s seat.

—-Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Sodium —-

The first thing he noticed was that it was dark, and pleasantly cool (therefore cold). The next thing he noticed was that it was a completely sealed metal box with a viewing window in the outline of the door.

Then he felt panic.

His goggles were gone and he was imprisoned in some weird room. He groaned, still groggy from the sedative… _the sedative_.

A sudden anger rushed through him.

He sent ice cascading along the walls to find a crack to expand into and break him out, but found nothing. It was perfectly sealed. He ran to the door, forcing his ice through but still nothing. He pressed his nose to the glass thumping on the door as he gazed around the room. Batman, no, _Hiccup_ , Hiccup was walking around, his upper body armour and mask removed, staring at a tablet.

“HEY!” Jack yelled kicking the door.

Hiccup glanced up and walked over, face guarded.

Up close to the door he reached forward and his voice came into the room through an intercom system. “Hi.”

Jack kicked the door again. “Hi!? All you have to say is hi?! You sedated me! Where the hell am I?!”

Hiccup had the grace to look at least a little sheepish glancing away for a moment before he answered. “You’re home, at the manor. Uh, this is called the icebox. It’s a prototype cell I designed to contain you if I ever caught you. I started it after our second encounter, when you got yourself out of that locked room. Completely immune to your ice. As for the sedation… I didn’t really have a choice.”

“Yes you did! You could have _not_ sedated me!” Jack snapped, slamming his fist against the door. Hiccup considered him for a moment, he was angry, but he wasn’t cold angry like Frost.

“Look, Pitch was trying to manipulate the situation to get you to kill me. Frankly I don’t want to know if it would’ve worked or not but I didn’t want to give our truce away to Pitch, so I decided it was best if I just sedated you. Everyone knows I don’t kill crims. Pitch retreated, no one knows about our current arrangement and we didn’t have to falsify a fight.” _Because you were really trying to kill me for a moment there._

Jack looked away, frowning as he ran through it in his head. Hiccup was right, it had worked out better this way. Pitch would suspect nothing. Argh, he hated it when the stupid Bat was right, however…

“Why am I locked up?”

Hiccup regarded him seriously for moment before answering in a level voice. “Because I wasn’t sure who I locked up.”

…Oh.

“Also, I wasn’t sure if you’d randomly make ice or something while you were sedated so I thought, why risk it?” Hiccup quickly added.

Jack huffed. “Well I’m fine, so you can let me out now.”

“Right.” Hiccup nodded, quickly punching a button out of view of the window and tugging on the heavy door. He stood to the side to let Jack out before closing the icebox back up, as he went to turn around there was a sudden flash of cold from behind him and his hair was dusted with ice.

“Don’t sedate me again, and where are my goggles!?”

It could’ve been worse.


	4. The The Batcave!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup really should secure the cave better.

Hiccup sighed heading into the library and down the concealed passage to the cavern system beneath his home. He’d best start kitting up for the night, though activity had been a bit sparse. He’d pin that on Catboy keeping his word and Harley and Ivy being cozied up together in the asylum. The twins were still out causing general mayhem but they didn’t have the grand scale or finesse of the other villains.

Trudging over to the computer array he did a broad scan of police radios for anything big happening as he headed over to his suit. He’d recently made some modifications to include additional heating elements and a greater resistance to acids. While he was excited about the additions it was getting a little crowded again in the suit though he’d have to make sure any future modifications didn’t impede his move-

“So, this is the bat cave huh?”

-ments.

He swivelled around quickly to see Catboy leaning casually against the bank of computer monitors he had set up.

“How did you get down here?” Hiccup sputtered, not sure if he wanted to attempt to man handle the fully suited part-time villain out of his cave or continue to suit himself up just in case.

Catboy’s lips stretched into a wide grin as he dangled a key card from his hand.

Hiccup groaned. “You took Fishlegs’ key.”

Catboy grinned wider. “Then I just had to follow you to find the entrance, and here we are. I honestly didn’t expect it to be _this_ easy though.”

Hiccup decided on being suited to the occasion and turned in a nonchalant way back to his suit. “Well people aren’t normally in my home looking for it.” He returned.

“I suppose.” Catboy drawled. Hiccup heard the shuffling of feet as the other man dawdled around looking around the cave. He heard a pause and a faint tinkling of glasses being shuffled. “Are these villain samples?”

Hiccup glanced over his shoulder as he finished shoving his feet into his boots. The cat was standing, head tilted to the side in curiosity, in front of the cabinet in which he stored all of the various things that had been clinging to his suit when he came home.

There were plants from ivy, face paint from Harley, ice from Catboy as well as various leather scraps, some of Bunny’s fur, a feather from a Toothfairy, splinters of wood from various weapons, bullets etc. He tried to keep and gather as much genetic material as possible from each villain so he could do as he had done with Catboy and identify their original personas.

“Uh, yeah. You know… just stuff that gets a ride home on me after a fight.” He answered cautiously.

He couldn’t see Catboy’s face as he looked over the vials, but something in his posture spoke of displeasure.

“This how you caught me then?” He said quietly, plucking one of the vials of water off the shelf.

Hiccup gave up with the gloves and stood, quickly moving over to the unpredictable figure in front of the shelves of glass. He was only wearing his chest piece, pants and boots, but he didn’t like the tone the other had taken.

Catboy dangled the vial in front of his face, slowly swirling the water as it began to freeze in his grip.

“This is all it takes huh? Scraps of leather and bits of water.” The water froze suddenly, the glass creaking forebodingly at the rapid temperature change.

“W-Well,” Hiccup stuttered trying to move between Catboy and the rest of the vials. “It takes a bit more than that. I mean, Ivy’s DNA is so scrambled that I need a lot of genetic material before I’ll be able to identify her, I mean, her blood is _green_. You were easier, there’s more of your DNA left intact ‘cause you’re mostly human still…”

“ _Mostly_ human?” Leather creaked around tightening knuckles.

 _Uh-oh_.

Any liquids in the vicinity began to form a thin film of ice and he could see mist condensing around his ankles. Not a good sign. At this rate the samples would be damaged if he was lucky, and if he was really lucky he was going to end up with an ice cave.

“I didn’t mean it that way.” He reached out for a shoulder and instantly regretted not wearing the gloves. Catboy was so cold he burned to touch.

“Oh!” Catboy snapped. “Now I’m not human? Now that I’m freezing your delicate _human_ skin?” He continued rounding on the partially dressed hero, stepping forward menacingly, but hey at least it was away from the vials.

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Hiccup replied, hands raised, slowly backing away, leading him into the middle of the cave where he could do the least damage. He should have known to be more careful, he had pages of evidence on Jack’s volatile nature. “Ivy is mostly a plant, that’s all I’m saying.”

His pacifications didn’t work. Jack was filled with a special anger, an old anger. He knew it was at odds with his new persona, the person he chose to be when he became Catboy and came back for his sister, when he tried to find a way back to Jackson Overland, but it didn’t stop it. He wasn’t a human any more, he was a genetic experiment from that monster’s workshop of horrors, and he hated any reminder of that. He hated being called anything but human. He hated the memories of waking in that tank and looking around that lab at the vials of him they had, that they manipulated and stuffed back inside. He hated that it wasn’t until he was filled with enough anger to freeze the cold resistant tank that they stored him in that they let him out. They knew that when they made him. When they gave him this anger; the anger they had used against him, the anger that weaponised him.

“Look, my heating system can’t handle this kind of temperature a-and I don’t want to have to charge you the heating bill for this place.” Hiccup stammered coming to a stop in the middle of the cave. “I’m sorry, I know… well I don’t know, that it’s a-a tender issue for you, but you said yourself you’re not Jack Frost anymore.”

The additional cold told Hiccup he really shouldn’t have mentioned _that_ name.

“Catboy, Jack. Stop! I’m aware of how powerful you are! You don’t have to show me, really.”

Deep in the well of cold, where he liked to think that Jack Frost lay in a cryogenic prison, something laughed, and he felt a terrible madness start to well up.

“You know, I don’t remember a little leathery _bat_ back during that winter.” He said, voice dark and cold. He flicked his wrist to the shelving unit behind him and the bottom row of vials shattered with the sudden temperature drop and expansion of their contents.

Hiccup swallowed hard, that wasn’t Catboy anymore. There was nothing playful or fluid to his posture, this was the rigidity and coldness that he’d read from victim reports. That had been there in that confrontation with Pitch. Jack Frost was before his first patrol as Batman, it was about the time Catboy had emerged that he first hit the streets.

“Yeah, you’re right. You’re a bit before my time, Catboy isn’t though. Y-You could say that we came out together. You were my first supervillain encounter you know? Remember? You asked who I was and I said I was the NightFury and you laughed and said I was about as furious as a fruit bat.” He forced out a laugh. “Then you spread my name around as Batman remember?”

A twitch.

“I tried for ages to try get people to call me anything _but_ Batman, but it stuck. The newspapers, everywhere.” He laughed again, nervous but trying. “I-I don’t know how you did it! I really couldn’t convince anyone to call me anything but Batman. Even Sandman, when I first fought him, called me Batman. I still haven’t worked out how you got that name around so fast.”

Jack struggled for a moment to remember, that awkward figure on the roof, trying to be brave. Full of snark and gadgetry but not with practice yet. Escaping him had been relatively easy at first, but he was relentless in his chase night after night. He hadn’t changed too much since then.

His grip loosened.

“And remember that time I chased you into the warehouse and you asked if I could see in the dark? Then you dropped things on me?” Hiccup continued. “After that I actually installed the night vision in my mask so you couldn’t catch me like that again.”

He remembered. He remembering laughing and jeering as Batman narrowly dodged below him. He remembered how _fun_ the chase had been and slowly the anger faded, making room for… sorrow? Jack’s face remained unreadable but as the rage ebbed and he began to come back to sanity he started to notice things. He noticed the ice on the ground, the burn on Hiccup’s hand, the shattered glass of the vials that he’d destroyed.

His heart sank.

He’d ruined it.

Hiccup would kick them out.

Things were going well so far, she was so safe here, and happy; he just couldn’t help the curiosity, and now he’d ruined it over what? The thought of his DNA in those little vial still made his heart roil, but it wasn’t blood or fluids Hiccup had taken, it was leather with flakes of skin, ice. He had overreacted.

“Jack?”

Hiccup must’ve noticed the change, his face seemed concerned, which was odd. He’d think anger more appropriate for the damage he’d done. He waited for the dismissal, to be told to get his sister and get out.

But it never came.

The hero just frowned a little, rubbing his forehead with a sigh.

“Hiccup I-”

“-The next bank heist.” Hiccup interrupted. “The next big bank heist planned. Get me that.”

Jack blinked confused for a moment before he figured it for what it was. A trade. He nodded, and fled.

As Catboy vanished up the stairwell Hiccup collapsed onto the nearest seat, staring at the cold burn on his hand. He had known that Jack Frost was dangerous, but since he’d become Catboy no one had glimpsed that part of him much. He’d do well to remember what had set him off. The vials seemed to be a catalyst, as well as any mention to his slightly not entirely human DNA. He couldn’t imagine the processes that the monster factory had undertaken to create Jack, but he knew it probably wasn’t pleasant.

He wondered how much of the exploded vials was salvageable, though given how it was all running together as it melted in the heat of the cave… not a lot of it. Ah well, lessons learnt.

He got to his feet and set to work clearing up the mess. At least it had only been one shelf.

Jack was missing for the next three days. Hiccup heard his sister get up and leave for school on her own, but the boisterous big brother was nowhere to be found. When he did spot Jack he was in the den leading to the bat cave, sprawled on the couch in the most, inelegant, pretzel cat shape he had ever seen a human accomplish. How he was sleeping like that was a mystery, especially seeing as he was still in his Catboy leathers.

Hiccup shrugged and decided to let sleeping cats lie. He entered the new passcode, swiped the new swipe card through the lock to the cave. Despite the changed security measures he was hardly surprised to find a note on his keyboard.

_Next Thursday Night, 2am, Angelo’s Jewellery._ _  
_That shop opposite the awesome fish and chip shop in lower town._ _

He was surprised however at the other thing left beside his keyboard; a toothfairy!

Dead, but completely intact, not even a feather out of place. He had been trying for _months_ to catch the strange organic machine hybrid, but they were ridiculously fast, not to mention vicious. It must have taken forever to catch one of these.

He let out a short breathy laugh at the additional token. Just like a cat to leave a dead bird as a peace offering.


	5. Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween had never been a great time for the Haddock Family.

Jack _loved_ Halloween. He didn’t dress up and walk around with his sister or anything but he could cruise around as Catboy and people would just say “nice costume.” It was _excellent_. Theft was so much easier when you could just walk around casually.

Not that there would be theft this year.

He sighed, stretching out on the couch. When he left this house he was taking this couch. Argh, so comfortable. He’d just finished curling back in to take a nap before his sister needed picking up when he heard feet padding down the hallway. It had Hiccup’s awkward step written all over it. He contemplated popping his head over the edge of the couch just as Hiccup passed it, but his plan was thwarted unexpectedly by Hiccup’s mobile.

“Ah, hi dad, if this is about tonight the cook alrea- wait. What?”

Jack’s ears perked from where he lay intently listening. He’d never seen or heard Hiccup speak to his father before. The guy was never home.

“But, you’re _always_ home for Halloween.”

Well that was weird for an absent dad. Jack frowned, Hiccup’s voice sounded somewhat distressed, kind of sad. Did Halloween mean that much to him?

“ _Why?_ Why can’t this wait? It’s the one day of the year I – yeah… I get it… right…. Okay. Have a safe flight.” Hiccup let out a long sigh and Jack heard the rustle of cloth as the phone was slipped back into its pocket.

He waited to hear Hiccup keep moving towards the lounge but he didn’t. He was still for a long time, eventually heaving a sigh and turning away, back down the corridor. Well _that_ was interesting. He couldn’t help but notice how disheartened Hiccup sounded, and how the shuffle of his feet lost their more purposeful confidence. It was troubling.

He had figured that Hiccup and his father had a strained relationship. He couldn’t remember much about the stories around Hiccup’s mother’s death, and it had all been hushed up by said father and his arms manufacturing company. There were rumours and theories but nothing solid. Unfortunately he didn’t think he could seduce the information from Hiccup, he’d been less prone to that these days anyway, which meant he’d just have to follow him around.

Following Hiccup wasn’t hard. He sat in his study. He didn’t leave all day.

Fishlegs occasionally appeared with a tray of food and drink, and would re-emerge with empty cups and un-eaten food. He was tempted to question the loyal butler but if he intimidated him Hiccup would grill him over it.

Urg, being good was hard.

He sent his little sister off to her friend’s house for a Halloween slumber party. Checking and double checking that she as safely away before he resumed following Hiccup. He waited for Hiccup to leave and head to the Batcave, which he was still very much not allowed into. But he didn’t. Night fell and dinner time came. They sat in painfully awkward silence as they ate, all attempts at conversation smothered by the morose atmosphere and the downcast look on Hiccup’s face.

It was weird and uncomfortable.

The quiet was stifling. Hiccup finished eating, barely half his food has been touched, and excused himself. Watching the big bad bat shuffle out of the dining room Jack became more determined than ever to find out what was the big deal with Hiccup’s dad not being here for Halloween.

After dinner Jack found Hiccup wandering to his bathroom and well, Jack wasn’t going to spy on him while he was bathing so he waited around outside, listening to the slow lap of water against the side of a tub. The splashing of Hiccup moving around. As much as he wanted to go in, he _had_ always wondered what Hiccup was like under that bat costume, he refrained. Something was up and he didn’t want to ruin his chances of finding out by being caught spying on the naked bat.

Hiccup left the room without incident but as he ambled down the hallway, he limped. His face was crinkled in light, but irritating, pain. That was weird. He hadn’t had any really big encounters recently. He watched Hiccup hobble down the hallway and finally after a moment of hesitation head down into the batcave.

Now just because he wasn’t _supposed_ to go in there didn’t mean that he couldn’t or wouldn’t. He slunk down after the bat, carefully avoiding the motion sensors and other technologies. Really, Hiccup needed to step up his game if he wanted to keep unwelcome guests out.

When he reached the bottom of the stairwell, he spotted Hiccup sitting in front of his bank of monitors, staring up at them from a slouched position in his chair. He sat bathed in the glow of the changing LCD’s, idly kneading a point just below his knee, eyes fixed to the screens as the computer ran, churning through street footage and streams and streams of data. What was he looking for?

Jack stayed hidden for as long as he could but Hiccup didn’t move from that spot for hours. Unmoving except for the hand at his leg. Eventually Jack decided that he’d played the patient kitty too long and it was time to stir the prey into movement.

“Doesn’t the big bad bat go halloweening?” He said casually, stepping forward as though he hadn’t been waiting all night. Hiccup didn’t move, didn’t flinch or glance away from the screen. He did stop rubbing his leg though.

“Not really my holiday.” He replied voice somewhat flat.

Jack frowned. “Why are you watching this anyway? I’ve seen this before and it’s always just churning through something. It never stops.”

“What do you want Jack?” Hiccup sighed, finally looking away from the screen.

“I want to know why the big bad bat isn’t making use of Halloween to get the drop on people. I do it every year.” Jack replied nonchalantly, making his way over to where Hiccup sat.

“Then why aren’t you out there now?”

“While you might have a file on me the size of your office cabinet I know nearly _nothing_ about you. All I know is today you’re limping and yesterday you weren’t. Normally your old man isn’t around, but today you’re disappointed he’s not here, that he’s _supposed_ to be here.” Jack said flippantly while sauntering over towards him. He stopped when his knees brushed the chair, leaning forward and placing his hands on Hiccups knees as though he were doing so for support.

He was hoping for a reaction. A flinch of pain or something to give away that Hiccup was injured, but instead he was shocked. There was his knee, but just at the tip of where his thumb rested was… a gap?

Hiccup let out a small, quick breath and tried to push him back. Jack ignored it, curiosity piqued. He pushed forward, resting on his knees before Hiccup as the other man tried to shove him off. Jack’s hands grabbed the hem of his pant leg and started lifting. Hiccup kicked his legs, yelling at him angrily, but Jack wouldn’t be deterred. It felt like, looked like, but his leg! It was like skin it was…

He wrapped his body around the leg, restraining it best he could as he practically tore the pants up the inseam. And there. Just below the knee was a line where Hiccup ended and state of the art machinery began. Jack froze and Hiccup seized the opportunity to throw him back.

“You.” Jack breathed staring down at the join that Hiccup was quickly covering up again. “You’re missing a _leg_ _‽_ ”

Hiccup didn’t comment has Jack stared, blue eyes wide. How had he never noticed?!

Hiccup glared at him. “What is wrong with you?” He growled still trying to cover the join, but it was pointless.

“But how? How did I not notice that? I mean, I’ve swept that leg and never noticed. It’s not on your record either.” Jack sputtered getting back to his feet.

“Yeah, wouldn’t want to embarrass my dad by being a cripple. Look Jack, it’s not a good day for this so if you could just go outside and catch some mice or something that would be great.” Hiccup snapped, swivelling his chair back to face the monitors.

“Wait!” Jack lunged forward grabbing the back of the chair and spinning it back around. “Why are you limping today? You were rubbing it for ages earlier, why does it hurt suddenly?”

“Jack just le-”

“No.”

Hiccup started, blinking up at Jack as though he hadn’t seen him properly before. Jack’s face was set, determined; an echo of what Hiccup’s had been when he’d first offered Jack this place to live. He’d never seen him so serious.

He paused.

“We’ve been living together for _months_. You’ve shared your damn home with us, and I know you know about me hording valuables from around the house _and_ that you’ve been deliberately hiding more. I know you stopped checking to see that I’ve stayed on the straight and narrow months ago, that you _trust_ me to do it. Hell you didn’t even kick me out after that, that _thing,_ in the batcave. All you do is help people and risk your goddamn life for what? I know that I’m a screw up. I know I make a mess wherever I go, and nothing has changed that, but you keep giving me the chance to make up for it. For some reason you keep trying to rehabilitate me. You persist at it. You’re an _idiot_ , and the one thing I know about idiots is they shouldn’t be left alone to do something stupid. So rather than trying to get me to leave, why don’t you be honest with me? Why not tell me something Hiccup? Why not tell me why you’re sitting here, staring at these screens? Why not tell me you lost that leg?”

Hiccup’s breath caught in his throat as he kept his eyes locked with Jack’s, his face was full of determination, steady in a way he couldn’t have imagined, earnest and open. He let out a sigh.

“I…” He got ready to lie, but Jack would know. He would know and all the trust they’d been building, the work, it would be gone. Jack would be disappointed and for some reason, that thought stung like nettles in his chest.

“I lost it on Halloween. I lost it when… when I lost my mum.” Jack backed away a little, as though to give him space, but kept his eyes focused on Hiccup. Hiccup took a breath, breaking eye contact to look back at the monitors. He didn’t think he could watch Jack’s face as he spoke.

“It doesn’t hurt, it’s uh… it’s psychosomatic you know? Imaginary. Phantom pain in my… in my leg.” He swallowed. “The computer in here has been running an algorithm to find the guy responsible, but there was only a little bit of data from the crime.” He let out a gush of air, weight slowly lifting as he continued. “I’ve been perfecting the algorithm over time with all the information I gathered on various villains. I tested the information to try and find out who they were. That’s how I found you actually.” The corner of his lips tugged up into small smile. “It’s the same algorithm that’s running now to try and find her killer. I had more material on you though so, wasn’t as hard.”

The air hung heavy with silence as the computer ticked away. Of all the confessions… Jack turned to look at the screen and now he knew what it was doing it seemed obvious. Some very limited DNA markers, a fragment of a fingerprint and a search algorithm, scouring database after database for a man in a Halloween costume who had taken the life of Hiccup’s mother. When Jack had lost his parents all those years ago, he’d hardly cared, he’d cared more about trying to keep his sister with a roof over her head. He could barely comprehend a mother that would inspire this devotion, but Hiccup’s eyes were glassy with an old pain, an old heartache. He could understand that at least.

He opened his mouth to say something, what he wasn’t entirely sure, but stopped as the computer let out a loud chime and the writing on the screen turned green.

Hiccup gasped, quickly swivelling the chair out of Jack’s grip and turning to the screen, punching keys rapidly and holding his breath as the screen loaded.

_96.71% MATCH – Steve Kars_

“I-I found him.” Hiccup stuttered breathless, staring at the screen. “I did it.”

The fact sheet was limited. The man had been investigated for grand theft auto and cleared, lived in a cheap apartment near the docklands. Hiccup shot up from his seat, Jack narrowly dodging the flying chair.

“That’s him, the guy who killed her. I’ve found him… I’ve _found him_.” His hands clenched into fists and he all but growled the last few words. He breathed hard for a moment and then was gone, running deeper into the cave.

Jack stood frozen for moment, slowly digesting information. Hiccup had finally found the man responsible for his mother’s death, on the anniversary of said death. Everyone knew the bat didn’t kill, but that look and the tone that had come across his face before he left…

He glanced around quickly, but he could already hear that car of his roaring out of the cave. Double crap. Jack ran to his room. He’d better suit up for a confrontation with a mad bat.

\-----------------------------------

Hiccup had never dressed so fast. His blood was thrumming in his veins as he floored it through the streets, barely seeing the city as he raced to the address of Steve Kars. His breathing was heavy, as a dull roar drummed in his ears, his heart beating with a familiar ache. His thoughts were churning at a million miles but he couldn’t concentrate on them enough to hear them. He felt mindless and adrift. He wasn’t calm, his whole body was far too alive, but he was still.

Before he’d even realised it he was there, at the apartment complex. He parked and was suddenly at the window of the apartment having scaled the fire escape. Light streamed out of the windows, flashing colours against the opposite wall. Music blared in the apartment, rattling the frames. The volume increased as he slid the window open and slunk in, merging with the crowd of drunken Halloween revellers.

His eyes scanned the crowds, passing over masked party goers and drunken smiles until he found him. He felt like the breath had been punched out of him. There he was. He was wearing a cheap Catboy outfit and grinding on some girl in skimpy a Poison Ivy costume. He was drunk, and smiling, and dancing. He was laughing while Hiccup was lamenting the anniversary of the night that he stole someone’s life.

An unfamiliar anger ripped through him and suddenly he was there. He pushed the girl off to the side and grabbed Steve by the throat, throwing him across the room with a roar.

The easy going atmosphere of the party burst like a bubble. Suddenly there was loud yelling and he was the attention of the room as he approached Steve. The crowd parted between them, only one or two people stepping out into his way.

“Hey, leave that guy alone.” Said a man in a vampire costume.

Batman pushed him to the side, brushing him with the paralytic agent that laced the barbs on his forearms. The man collapsed and screaming began. There was panicked flurries of movement as everyone evacuated the room in the most disorderly fashion possible. Streaming out the doors and down the fire escape.

Meanwhile Steve was panicking.

His cheap fabric onesie was hindering his movement as he scrambled towards the fire escape. He had one leg out of the window when he was grabbed from behind and hauled back into the room.

“How dare you!” The costumed hero roared. “How dare you party and celebrate after what you’ve done!” He continued, throwing him back to the floor.

Steve cowered. Hiccup had always imagined him differently, a villain the likes of which he fought on a regular basis. Someone massive and intimidating like North, or confident and dangerous like the Boogeyman. But no.

He still remembered that night. The drive home. The man they’d “hit”. His face. The same face staring at him now. His mother had gone to check he was okay, but he’d been fine. He remembered her crying. The yelling. The pain in his leg. The car half crushed on top of him. The slow drip of blood. His mother’s lifeless eyes. This snivelling coward had caused it all.

“Halloween 2004. You killed a woman.”

Steve paled to a shade whiter than Jack’s hair. “Wh-What are you talking about? Look I’m sorry I’m just in a costume I’m not actually Catboy.”

He stepped forward, intent to do harm, but was stopped.

“As flattering as that is blondie, this big bad bat ain’t looking for me.”

Catboy strolled over to stand just to the side of Batman and his cornered criminal, appearing as carefree as ever. The party lights glinted off his red goggles, blocking his eyes from view as the ex-criminal stared at the angry hero.

“Stay outta this.” Batman growled, not taking his eyes of Steve. His body was practically vibrating with focus. He was so _angry_. This man couldn’t even remember what he’d done, what he’d stolen from him!

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Steve said, crawling backwards.

“Really?” Batman advanced on the scrambling man. “It was just past midnight, just outside of town. You faked a being clipped by a black sedan being driven by a woman in a red gown with her ten year old son in the back seat. You put a gun to her head.”

Steve grew whiter still and Catboy glanced between the pair nervously. This certainly wasn’t like the hero at all. He’d never seen him so angry. To be honest he’d never really seen him angry at all. He moved forward just in case.

“Look I-I made a mistake! It wasn’t supposed to happen! I was just trying to impress the mob by grabbing the arms dealers’ wife, but I botched it, they never took me in. I didn’t mean for it to happen.” Steve stuttered raising his arms defensively. “I’m sorry.”

Blood rushed in his ears. Anger, hot and consuming, ripped through him harder than ever before.

“You’re sorry?! It was a mistake?!” He yelled drawing back his leg. “An innocent woman is dead and you’re sorry?!” He kicked the downed man hard in the ribs. Steve screamed as the loud snap of bone accompanied the gesture. This was no supervillain with great strength, this was a drug addled wannabe criminal.

He didn’t care through. He pulled back his leg back, ready to kick him again, when he was suddenly being hauled backwards. Arms looped under his restraining his movement.

“Woah Batboy. This isn’t how you do thing, just cuff him and dump him.” Catboy grunted, fighting to hold on to the thrashing man. Steve meanwhile was curled up on the ground clutching at his side, still desperately trying to worm away.

Catboy gave a suddenly yelp as he was thrown over Batman, he should’ve known that manoeuvre, he used to use it on the bat all the time. He grunted as he hit the ground but quickly got to his feet, standing between one very vengeful bat and one snivelling coward.

“Don’t do this.” Jack said, pulling up his goggles to look the hero in the eye.

“After what he did?!” He snarled.

It was so strange. Such a role reversal to have the not so villainous villain Catboy talking the valiant and true Batman out of beating a man to death out of rage. So strange for the man who was once Jack Frost to stop a man from killing in anger. But there they were.

Jack spread his arm wide and kept his face open as he spoke. “Yes! _Yes_ , because you’re better than us. Better than me. Better than _him_.”

Steve sat whimpering behind Jack as darkened green eyes turned sad and the rage began to bleed away. Jack was right. He was better than this.

After all this time.

In his mind, this moment would’ve been heroic and just. The final capture of the mastermind behind his mother’s murder. But here he was, vastly out gunning some whimpering, petty crook. He was not in a grand entrance way or abandoned warehouse staring down the pure evil of her killer; he was in a tiny apartment, the monster mash still blaring on the sound system as he stood amongst trampled black and orange streamers. The villain was not some towering menace but a snivelling mess, cowering on the ground in a frankly terrible Catboy outfit.

This was not what he’d imagined at all.

“Why? Why did she have to die? Why did it have to be at the hands of someone like you?” He gasped. He was fighting back a familiar pain, one he was used to fighting, one that was somehow new again; fresh like the night he woke in the hospital to his father’s tear streaked face. “What could’ve been worth it?”

He drew a deep breath, collecting himself again.

Jack smiled and lowered his goggles back into place. “Nothing would’ve been worth it. He’s just a small fish who fucked up making it into a bigger pond.” He replied, rounding on the still whining man.

“I am a little offended by your costume though goldfish.” He said crouching down to inspect the man. “What do you want to do with him?”

“Call the cops on him. I’ll leave the evidence file here, and he’s going to admit to what he did when the police get here.” Batman explained, looking hard at the man who nodded frantically. “Good.”

“That rib is probably a bit sore though.” Catboy said with a sly grin.

Batman gave the grinning cat a quizzical look before the meaning dawned on him. “You’re right.” He grinned.

“Here, let me put some ice on that for you.”

\---------

It wasn’t until later that night, so close to morning that dawn was just starting to show its colours, that Jack felt he could relax again. He lay sprawled across his favourite sofa, with Hiccup down the other end, Jack’s legs across his lap. Hiccup’s eyes lazily focused on a really old and cheesy horror film involving giant ladybeetles, he was hardly watching it though. His thoughts churned, he felt empty and scoured out.

They hadn’t really spoken since they had left and changed back into their less Halloween-esque clothes, but had settled onto the couch, strangely comfortable in each other’s presence.

“You know.” Jack said, slowly pulling himself up into a seated position, his shoulder brushing Hiccup’s. “This isn’t how I pictured my Halloween.”

Hiccup gave a wry grin. “Sorry to ruin your fun.” He murmured.

“It’s not like that isn’t something I’m used to.” Jack grumbled feeling Hiccup huff out a laugh beside him. “But it’s okay.”

“Yeah?” Hiccup replied, bumping his shoulder.

“Yeah.” Jack said, bumping back. “I mean I wouldn’t want to do it every year, but it’s okay.”

Hiccup grinned shakily, still feeling somewhat adrift. “Uh, thanks by the way.”

“For what?”

“For coming after me. I was just so angry it was like I wasn’t there anymore.” Hiccup said quietly, staring at his hands.

“It’s okay. I know what it feels like to just lose it like that.” Jack gave a short dismissive huff. “Definitely know how that feels.”

Hiccup frowned, glancing over at Jack. “Is that… is that how it felt, that day in the cave?”

“I think yours is a bit different.” He explained. “Mine was just anger, I saw something I didn’t like and got angry about it. It was selfish. Yours was because you were sad, because you lost something and wanted justice.”

Hiccup’s frown deepened. “I don’t think that’s fair. I... I think you lost something too. From what I know about that place I can’t imagine that having your genetics toyed with would be fun and voluntary.”

Jack didn’t respond, affixing his eyes to the television as the crappy horror continued to play. There was a woman hiding behind a hay bale in a barn now. Her face horrified as a giant lady beetle wandered past the rotted barn door. Hiccup felt somehow as though he could relate. Halloween, vigilante-ism, and the costume had always been tied up with his grief for his mother. That he’d been hiding from his sorrow as though he could will it away. He was just as trapped by his insecurities. Surely Jack had been the same. Just as trapped.

“I don’t think your anger is selfish.” He murmured. “I think it’s justified.”

“And yours wasn’t?” Jack looked away from the now screaming woman on the screen, the beetles had found her. “It’s much easier to solve other problems right? As nice as you are, you’re avoiding your own problems. This isn’t about me Hiccup, it’s about you. You got angry. It’s okay.”

Hiccup felt something stir. “Is it?” He trembled a little.

“Yes. Yes, it is.” Jack said, brows furrowed in concern. “Why would you think it wasn’t?”

“She’d be so ashamed of me tonight.” Hiccup’s teeth clicked shut as he finished, too late to stop the words from spilling out.

He hadn’t meant to say it. He hadn’t wanted to say it. But he knew it was true. Alongside the sadness of the day there was now _shame._ Acknowledging it was crippling him. He didn’t want to feel it, and as it reared its head, that deep buried sorrow coasted up on its coattails. It grew in his chest until he felt it crushing his lungs. It was huge. Too big. Too much. He didn’t want it. He drew in a hard breath, his leg _hurt_. More deep breaths, like he was drowning. The feeling was too big, too heavy. He had tried so _hard_ to be enough for them, to avenger his mother, to defeat that monster in his closet.

But it hadn’t been a monster. He’d been the monster. God. He’d broken that man’s _rib_ , left him trapped in ice. He was no better than Jack Frost. He would’ve killed him, he wanted to. There was ringing in his ears. It was too much. Way too much.

“Hiccup?”

His hand clutched his chest. He was crying. He couldn’t’ stop.

“Batboy? Crap. Hiccup? C’mere.” There were cool arms around his shoulder and he was being pulled. Jack wrapped his arms around him, pulling him into a tight embrace. Hiccup fought it at first, it left him feeling fractured, though it’d be better to let him fall to pieces but the pieces were being held together. Jack had pulled him over into his lap, coiled around him like a cat and held him tight.

“It’s okay. It’s okay Hiccup. She would be proud. You didn’t kill him, you snapped out of your anger. You were so strong. You did it. You were a hero. You were better than us.” Jack said as Hiccup heaved small broken sounds into the front of his hoody.

As he held Hiccup he felt something stir in his chest, something tight. It felt like when he saw his sister crying at their parent’s funeral. It caught in his throat like a bubble, an empathetic sadness. He knew he kind of cared about the idiot. He didn’t know when he’d noticed it, but now it was there he couldn’t turn away from it. He continued to try and sooth him, running a hand down his back as though he could smooth the jaggedness of Hiccup’s emotions. He carded fingers through Hiccup’s hair, occasionally resting his palm against his forehead as though his cool temperature could cool the fever. Tried to reassure Hiccup that while grieved he was not alone, Jack was right there. He could do something.

Hiccup pushed his face harder into his chest, and his muscles began to loose and Jack held him together. He felt safe. Which was strange considering the company.

Jack was cool and steady, arms drawing Hiccup deeper and deeper. A slowly closing trap. Hiccup didn’t fight it. He burrowed his face in as he felt something enormous shift in his chest. He felt it began to seep away. The sadness that had scoured through him slow ebbing like the tides.

They sat there as the old horror film wound down, the credits rolling as the sun rose outside. Hiccup was surprised to find himself soothed by Jack’s hold. Comfortable in the circle of arms that never warmed, but that didn’t really bother him. He felt Jack’s cool breath on the back of his neck like a balm, and the steady metronome of his heart gave pace to his own frantic heart.

He let out a final long breath, feeling the last of the tightness in his chest relax. In the wake of the turmoil came a bone deep weariness that pulled at him. Jack continued to quietly murmur to him, calming him, lulling him into sleep.

When Hiccup woke the next morning, cartoons were playing on the television. His head was resting against Jack’s collar bone and the arms that had held him so tightly were loosely wrapped around him now, hanging limply as Jack slept. He must’ve fallen asleep after, after whatever that was, had happened.

He felt stiff and a little bit cold. Jack hadn’t warmed in the least, his temperature unchangeable, even as he slept. He tried not to shift too much, wary of waking up the napping cat. So much had changed. He had never envisioned this when he asked Jack to come and live with him all those nights ago, though while he hadn’t anticipated it, he wasn’t sad that it had happened.

Jack was strange, and far more complex than he’d originally given him credit for. But he was good. He craned his neck upwards to Jack’s face. He was lying with his head flopped back onto the head rest, mouth slack and face relaxed. There was little of the mischievousness, the flirting, the troubles he recognised, instead there was a calmness that was almost unfamiliar on Jack’s face.

He tried to gently disengage from Jack, quietly manoeuvring to his feet. Just as he reached his feet he Jack stirred, mumbling something and blinking lazily.

“Hiccup?”

“Hey.” Hiccup smiled a little, feeling lighter than he had in a long time. “Sorry, just, uh, getting kind of hungry. You want something?”

“Milk.” Jack grumbled, stretching languidly and scrunching his face up.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. “Of course. I swear you drink more milk than a family of four.”

“Is it a problem?” Jack asked, uncharacteristic seriousness in his expression.

A lot had changed since Jack first came to live with him. But it wasn’t a bad change. Recent developments definitely not a bad change. Hiccup smiled. “No. It’s okay. Definitely not a problem.”

“Good.” Jack smirked, stretching languidly. He made sure he kept eye contact with Hiccup as he slumped over the side and continued to stretch, a sly grin his face. Hiccup felt the tell-tale warmth of a blush itching at his neck as Jack’s shirt rode up.

“You’re the worst.”

“You love it.”

“Urg. I’m getting breakfast.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is as far as I got, I may add some more later when I have some time and some inspiration dollars to spend.

**Author's Note:**

> please forgive the grammar and punctuation and spelling errors. I mean you don't have to, but it would be nice.
> 
> Still don't really have a beta reader and I'm awful at proofing my own work.


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